Paid sick leave in California works like this: nearly every employee earns at least 40 hours (five days) of paid sick time per year, either by accruing one hour for every 30 hours worked or by receiving the full amount up front at the start of each year. You start earning sick leave on day one, but you have to wait 90 days before you can actually use any of it. When you do take sick leave, you’re paid at your regular rate of pay, and your employer has to show your available balance on every pay stub.
The rules come from the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, expanded by Senate Bill 616, which raised the minimum from 24 hours to 40 hours as of January 1, 2024.1LegiScan. California Code 245-5, 246, 246-5 Labor Code
How You Earn Sick Leave
Your employer picks one of two methods.
Accrual
Under the accrual method, you earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions For a full-time 40-hour-a-week worker, that comes out to about an hour and 20 minutes of sick leave per week. Accrual starts on your first day of employment.3California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 246
Front-Loading
Instead of tracking hours, your employer can drop the full 40 hours or five days into your bank at the start of each benefit year. You get immediate access to the whole amount without waiting for it to build up.3California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 246
The 90-Day Waiting Period
Whichever method your employer uses, you can’t actually take paid sick leave until you’ve been on the job for 90 calendar days.3California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 246 The clock runs from your first day and doesn’t reset if your hours drop.
Your available balance has to appear on every wage statement.4California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 247-5 If it isn’t on your pay stub, your employer is out of compliance.
How Much You Can Use and What Rolls Over
Even if you accrue more than 40 hours over time, your employer can cap your annual usage at 40 hours or five days.1LegiScan. California Code 245-5, 246, 246-5 Labor Code So if you have 60 hours banked, you might still be limited to 40 in a given year.
Under the accrual method, unused hours carry over from year to year, and your employer can set a total accrual ceiling of 80 hours or 10 days. Once you hit that ceiling, you stop earning more until you use some and drop below it.1LegiScan. California Code 245-5, 246, 246-5 Labor Code
Front-loading doesn’t require any carryover. The full 40 hours refreshes every year regardless of what you used or didn’t use.3California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 246 That difference matters. Accrual can build a cushion over time; front-loading gives you the same amount every year and no more.
What You Can Use Sick Leave For
California’s sick leave covers more than your own illness. Labor Code Section 246.5 allows you to use it for:
- Diagnosis, care, or treatment of your own health condition, or preventive care like checkups and flu shots
- The same health-related care for a family member, defined as a child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling
- Care for one “designated person” you name yourself. Your employer can limit you to one designated person per 12-month period, and you identify who it is at the time you request the leave1LegiScan. California Code 245-5, 246, 246-5 Labor Code
- Safe leave if you’re a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking — for things like obtaining a restraining order, relocating, or getting counseling5California Legislative Information. California Code, Labor Code LAB 246-5
- For agricultural workers who work outdoors, avoiding smoke, heat, or flood conditions during a declared state or local emergency (as of January 1, 2025)5California Legislative Information. California Code, Labor Code LAB 246-5
The designated person provision is useful for people whose real support network doesn’t fit the family list. A close friend, a roommate, or an unmarried partner who isn’t a registered domestic partner can be your designated person. You don’t have to explain the relationship to your employer.
How Your Sick Pay Is Calculated
Sick pay should reflect what you would have earned working.
If you’re a non-exempt hourly employee, the rate is your regular non-overtime hourly pay for the workweek in which you take the leave. If your pay varies because of commissions, shift differentials, or piece rates, your employer can instead average your total non-overtime compensation over the previous 90 days and divide by the non-overtime hours you worked in that period.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re a salaried exempt employee, sick pay comes at the same rate as any other paid time off you receive.
Payment has to be issued no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period after you took the sick leave.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions A late sick-pay check is a legal violation, not a payroll hiccup.
Who Is Covered and Who Isn’t
You qualify if you work for the same employer for at least 30 days in California within a year, whether you’re full-time, part-time, per diem, or temporary.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
A few categories of workers are fully exempt from the state law:
- Airline flight deck and cabin crew who already get compensated time off at least equivalent to the state minimum
- Retired annuitants working for government entities
- Railroad employees
- Construction workers under a qualifying collective bargaining agreement
Other workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement may be partially exempt, but only if the agreement provides paid sick days or equivalent paid time off, premium overtime rates, and a base hourly rate at least 30 percent above the state minimum wage.6California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 245-5 If the agreement misses any of those conditions, the employer has to comply with the full sick leave law.
Independent contractors aren’t covered. California uses a strict “ABC test” under Labor Code Section 2775 to determine who’s really an independent contractor and who’s a misclassified employee. If you work under an employer’s direction, use their tools, and do work that’s part of their regular business, you’re likely an employee entitled to sick leave regardless of what your contract calls you.
What Happens to Unused Sick Leave When You Leave
California doesn’t require employers to pay out unused sick leave when you quit or are fired. That’s different from vacation, which does have to be cashed out at separation.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
If your employer bundles sick and vacation time into a single “paid time off” (PTO) bank, the whole balance must be cashed out at termination because it contains vacation.
If the same employer rehires you within 12 months, your previously accrued unused sick leave has to be reinstated.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions The exception is if the employer had a PTO policy and paid you the balance when you left — there’s nothing to restore. This reinstatement rule matters most for seasonal workers who cycle back to the same company.
Your Protections Against Retaliation
An employer cannot deny your right to use accrued sick days, fire you, threaten to fire you, demote you, suspend you, or discriminate against you in any way for using sick leave or trying to.5California Legislative Information. California Code, Labor Code LAB 246-5 The protection also covers filing a complaint, cooperating in an investigation, or opposing a company policy that conflicts with the law.
Your employer also cannot require you to find a replacement worker as a condition of taking sick leave.5California Legislative Information. California Code, Labor Code LAB 246-5 If your manager tells you to cover your own shift before calling in sick, that’s a violation. You do need to give reasonable advance notice when the leave is foreseeable, like a scheduled medical appointment. Scrambling for coverage isn’t your job.
When Local Rules Give You More
Several California cities have their own paid sick leave ordinances that go beyond the state minimums. San Francisco lets employees at businesses with 10 or more workers accrue up to 72 hours of sick leave.7City and County of San Francisco. Paid Sick Leave Ordinance Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego have their own variations. When a local ordinance is more generous than state law, the local rules apply. You never get less than the state floor, but you may get more depending on where you work.
If Your Employer Violates the Law
If your employer denies you sick leave, retaliates against you for using it, or fails to pay properly, you can file a wage claim with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE). You can file online, by email, by mail, or in person at a local Labor Commissioner’s Office.8California Department of Industrial Relations. Labor Commissioner’s Office – How to File a Wage Claim The deadline is three years from the date of the violation.
The penalties have teeth. If an employer unlawfully withholds sick pay, the administrative penalty is three times the withheld amount or $250, whichever is greater, up to an aggregate cap of $4,000. Retaliation, like firing someone for calling in sick, carries a penalty of $50 for each day the violation continued, and the employer can be ordered to reinstate the worker and pay back wages.9California Legislative Information. California Code, Labor Code LAB 248-5
Before filing, hold onto your pay stubs, any written messages about sick leave requests, and a record of the hours you’ve worked. Documentation moves the process along.